Dream; Believe; Do!

I finished this a couple of days ago, and I’m still grinning about it! Actually, the farther I get from having done it, the more I love the project! 🙂 And to think… it only took me a couple of my “stuck on the sofa” days AND it was one of my goals for 2010! It’s so nice to have it done after it languished for so long in my UFO pile…

Yup! I’m done with my little petit point sampler, and I’m madly in love with it. 🙂 What you are seeing in this picture is smaller than a credit card – frame and all – and it’s my first finished miniature needlework, not to mention, I framed it myself. Any wonder I’m grinning?

There are a total of 4536 stitches in this project. The rest of the details are in last week’s post from when I started working on it again. If you would like to see the process I used to frame this piece, I wrote a tutorial for it and have it posted on the blog HERE or you can access it through a link on the sidebar.

Oh, and it even got the official “Hitty Seal of Approval.” The girls are all a flutter about wanting to work on Friendship Cabin again now. 🙂

So, I cast off the last main piece of my East Meets West insanity project last night, and I knew instantly that I couldn’t face starting the finishing work on it without taking a little bit of a break. Took me all of 12 seconds to figure out what I wanted to do, and I even knew where it was. Of course, the fact that it was laying out, not put away after the trip I foolishly dragged it on in June in case I was bored in Alaska had nothing to do with my desire to work on it, I’m quite sure… 😉

Anyway, what I’m doing is another of my annual goals, and it’s going a lot faster and with much less of a headache than I was getting from that bag I’ve been knitting for the past two weeks. This is where I started – well, almost – tonight. I did forget to photograph it before I worked in two very small areas of color, but it wasn’t THAT many stitches, so I figure this counts.

At 40 stitches per inch (Yes, that’s 1600 per square inch.), it’s making the size 1.5 knitting needles I’ve been using for the previous fortnight look like tree trunks! I’m really enjoying the change, though, and it’s going rather quickly. My biggest problem is going to be figuring out how to frame it worthy of the work. This is totally new territory for me, and I don’t want it to look second rate!

Tech info: This is The Boating Sampler designed by Nancy Sturgeon for Threads Through Time. I couldn’t say if it’s still available, and I’m not even sure where I bought it, as I started this about 4 years ago. I’m not even sure it was new to me then, to be quite honest! It’s a perfectly satisfactory little kit, and I’d not hesitate to buy another from the same company. Eventually this will hang in Friendship Cabin, the future Hitty habitat here. They are ever so fond of sailing related items… and I’m not good at saying “no” to them. 😉 Though this is perfectly suitable for 1:12 scale and Hitty is about 1:9, I’m taking advantage of the fact that pictures come in a very wide range of sizes. It would make a seriously nifty inset on a trinket box for me, too, but I’m not willing to deal with a Hitty uprising, so they will get to keep the finished project. 🙂

Perhaps this post should be titled “Living in Dreamland.” 😉 It’s unquestionably the most ambitious list of goals I’ve ever set out at the beginning of the year, and I’ve not ever completed my shorter lists, but my philosophy of goals remains that having a higher target means I hit more, even if I don’t complete them all. The most important factor for me is to remain realistic in that I remember it IS an overly ambitious list, and that anything I do accomplish is a victory; it’s not a defeat to not do all of it. These are goals to help me stay on track, not requirements that identify whether I’m a worthwhile person!

That said, here are my goals for 2010:

My online miniatures group is doing a goals based project, and we were asked to spell out five mini goals, so I will start with those:

Finish my Gail Wilson Hitty, which was started with enthusiasm during the online class, worked on for three nights, and now has the rest of the girls giving me “the look” for not getting their sister done. I have a little glitch in the painting, and since this is a challenging project for me anyway, the moment I encountered a problem, I put her away for a time when I could really feel relaxed. ‘Nuff said? :S

Finish my Teresa Layman Cottage By the Sea project – actually barely started, and a massive project for someone who really doesn’t like embroidery or French knots. This will be a rug for Friendship Cabin.

Finish my Boat Sampler – stitched on silk gauze – lots to go on it, but most of the hardest part is completed. Like the Layman project, I started this on our last cruise. Unlike the Layman project, I loved working on this one, so I did quite a bit more of it. Also belongs in Friendship Cabin, and perhaps will be finished on another cruise…

Publish at least 4 knitting patterns – should actually be more than this, as I have 3 projects that just need the paperwork part of this goal in order to be ready. The paperwork is the hard part of course… I’m knitting my next shawl design right now, and I’ve promised another KAL for the spring, so I’m going to be busy with this!

Finish my spinning wheel – I can’t believe this sat untouched for an entire year. Where on earth did the time go??? The staining is about half done, but it’s an involved project. Once that’s done, I need to finish and assemble it.

Learn to use said wheel

Knit a project from wool I’ve cleaned and spun, using a pattern I’ve designed – I have a bit of a jumpstart on this, as I’ve cleaned a goodly pile and picked some of it already.

Stash all my yarn on Ravelry – yes, maybe I’ll get it completed this year… – Starting with 550

Get competent purling continental. I think I need to have a dedicated project for this… maybe a washcloth. 🙂

Make another 2 pairs of socks for myself (maybe I’ll get the next done before I wear holes in what I have?) This was one pair until a friend twisted my arm and said I should try for two – and one pair has to be top down, to boot! Bad thing here is that I also promised a pair to my daughter, so this means three pair this year, when I’ve never done more than one. Gulp!

Finish at least 3 of the projects currently languishing in my WIP/UFO tubs – items started before July 1, 2009. This one will also be a challenge. I love the stuff in my UFO tub, even though it’s all pretty good at inducing guilt. I’ve found that designing really slows down the knitting, though, especially on other people’s patterns!

Other Creative Goals:

Finish at least one of the remodeling projects… sigh… Acceptable candidates are the kitchen (which is in the impossible dream category), painting the door to my future studio (easy), or finishing the nook, laundry room, or my sewing room. Nook and laundry room both depend on hubby – most especially the nook – though I have a load of work to do in those two areas, too.

Organize my computer photos, then print and label as I think necessary. I’m rereading this and laughing at the thought of actually getting it done, but…

Spend at least a few minutes every week making music – LOVE doing this, but I’ve really ignored this part of my life for the last few years. Looking for a flute – like I need more instruments around here?

Learn my new camera – for starters, needing to know why I can’t take a decent close up with a camera that cost this much!

Make up a Gail Wilson kit – see mini goal #2

Finish Reba – poor thing! Her sisters were finished in 2006 (pix in this album) but my teacher suddenly stopped classes with Reba just one firing away from being done. Every attempt I’ve made to get her fired since then has ended in failure. Need to get a kiln up and going here so I don’t have to depend on anyone else.

Make a pair of socks on my CSM – This could be anything from amazingly easy to a terrible headache, based on things I’ve heard. First task is getting the new needles and such that I need.

Probably crazy, but I joined a Navajo style weaving Yahoo group, and now I have the bug to weave something, even if it’s small. I’m torn between tri-loom and Navajo style, but would adore trying both. One item is enough to qualify.

Move one of my dolls from hospital patient status to display status – maybe Aaron, so he can show off his adorable knitted romper? He is on this page.

Personal Goals – and these tend to have a very familiar ring to them:

End the year 25 pounds lighter than I started it. Why is this so hard?!

Read 100 books

End the year debt free – both money and promises made

Go somewhere new – state or country. I have a life goal of visiting all 50 states and all 7 continents, and I need to keep at it if I’m going to succeed!

Clean out one of my email accounts – frighteningly big project, but I’ve made a lot of progress already in the first two days of the year. It’s amazing how quickly this can fall behind again, though.

I have a challenge with a friend to blog at least once each week

Solidly memorize the scripture verses on my calendar

Get the treadmill inside – Sounds like no big deal, but it’s going to need cleaned up, and the area where it belongs is packed solid with things that don’t belong where they are – which aren’t where they belong because their spots are filled with stuff that doesn’t belong where it is, which… well… you get the idea!

I made a sudden and very unexpected real estate acquisition this week! How big of an acquisition it is would be purely in the eye of the beholder, though. 😉 I’ve been a member of the local Freecycle group for a few years, but nearly all my activity has been getting rid of things. However, when someone posted a partially built dollhouse kit a few days ago, I couldn’t resist pouncing on the opportunity to get a nice sized house. Next problem is finding a good spot for this new treasure.

It’s the Vermont Farmhouse Jr. kit from Real Good Toys, and it’s very much a handyman’s special. It was started by a little girl of about 10 years of age – about 10 years ago. She abandoned the project, and the house has been sitting in the basement for a good while. Over the course of time, the windows, doors, and stairs disappeared. The shingling is half done and needs to be removed entirely.

The porch appears to have been in place at one point in time, but it’s reverted to pieces in a box.

And there was what appears to be a toxic waste spill in the attic…

But just look at the potential! The shell is intact and solid, and there is no redecorating to do! Both of the lower floors divide into two rooms, and the attic can be sectioned as well.

Having not planned on having such a nice big house to play with at this point in time, my mind is spinning with options of how to dress it out, but for now, I’ve not arrived at any definite plan of action – except that I know the woman of the house is a creative lady, so there will have to be some sort of sewing, knitting, and/or art area in here somewhere. 😉

And speaking of miniatures and sewing… I just finished a little tutorial on making realistic looking sewing patterns “in use” for miniature scenes. You can access it through a direct link in my sidebar or click here. Have fun! And let me know if you try it. I’d love to see your finished projects!